


Taken

by Sylv



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-11-20 04:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylv/pseuds/Sylv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wally was an awkward kid, there was no doubt about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taken

Wally was an awkward kid. No doubt about that. Somehow he managed to sweet-talk his way out of everything anyhow, using his heart-melting grin and quite a bit of harmless flirting.

Mostly harmless, at least.

Those sorts of things had never worked on Rachel. She was extremely down to earth and stubbornly refused to be wooed by any number of waggling eyebrows.

And yet, somehow, Wally managed to worm his way into her heart.

She wasn't exactly positive about how it happened. Rachel had met him, and he hadn't left her alone. It seemed that he had taken it upon himself to get her to open up, talk to him, laugh. He wanted to see her smile freely, and not worry about anything. He wanted to see the worry lines in her face be ironed out and wanted, when she slept in his bed because she couldn't sleep in her own, her to have a peaceful refuge when she closed her eyes.

And to do this, he used any manner of methods to achieve the goal. He would accidentally knock into her, spilling her books out of her hands. He would corner her by her locker and advance upon her with a worrying gleam in his eyes. He would make jokes, laugh, smile, tease, flirt without success, buy her ice cream (after watching her, he knew that her favorite was the double chocolate chunk). Through it all, Rachel pretended to be indifferent, that she didn't actually care about what he was doing or saying.

And yet, somehow, someway, it got through to her. Through her walls and her defenses, through the barbed wire fence and the iron-wrought gates defended by menacing figures. He sped past them, like lightning, and reached the locked chest that was her heart. He picked the lock, and stole a piece of it; he took a piece of her while she wasn't looking. When Rachel finally realized this, she was at once furious and impressed. The very next day she found him and sat next to him in front of the school, not saying anything.

Wally got the message.

And from there a friendship bloomed. Rachel focused him and helped him divert all his energy and enthusiasm into productive channels. Wally helped her to loosen up, and regain back some of the youth that she had lost so young in life. But throughout all of this, Rachel had more than her fair share of encounters with the awkwardness that was Wally. It was always following close behind him, although he never seemed to see it.

He liked to show up to school wearing only a robe, and laughed loudly at the hesitant questions of whether or not there was anything underneath it. His inability to  _not_ flirt with girls he came across grated on Rachel's nerves. His offhand comments about how any running exercises in gym were so easy that he couldn't understand how anyone wouldn't be able to pass with flying colors tended to make everyone around him uncomfortable. One time he had begun to change into his gym clothes in the middle of the hallway, stating that the locker room smelled too bad to be in there for any length of time.

More often than not, Rachel was integrated into this somehow. People would walk up to her and immediately associate her with the awkward boy that made everyone laugh. And although she loved Wally dearly, she had no desire to always be "the girl who hangs out with the funny kid". This questionably fortunate friendship also led to her being the butt of some of his jokes, or god forbid, good intentions. But it was even worse when it was someone else.

"Wally, I refuse to let you make Jenny into one of your projects." Rachel told him firmly, sitting cross-legged on the swivel chair in front of her desk which had a couple of lit candles burning quietly on it. Her cell phone was lying in the middle of them, on speaker, and the center of her attention at the moment. The girl had snapped at her friend when he had called, interrupting her meditation session, but that never stopped him from plowing right on and saying what he wanted to say. And what he had wanted to say this time made Rachel rather distraught.

"But my projects always bring people love and joy and happiness and fluff and all manner of good things!" came the muffled protesting from Wally's end of the phone. Water was running somewhere in the background as a light tinkling noise.

Rachel frowned. "Liar. The only good that has ever come out of any of your projects was…" she trailed off, averting her eyes even though Wally couldn't see her.

She could hear his grin as the water stopped running. "Go on… say it!"

The girl winced slightly, but complied. "Was… me, but I'm the only one! Do you remember what happened to Kori? Or what about that time you decided that Dick shouldn't be quite so obsessed with being per-" she hurried to defend her argument with a list of past failures when she heard water rushing down in a sucking, flushing noise, and all of the color drained out of her face like someone had just pulled a plug.

"Wally—Wally did you just  _go to the bathroom_?!"

There was a light snigger from her friend and he began, "Yeah, but what does that matter?"

"I'm not talking to you anymore."

A surprised pause. "No, wait, Rae-"

"No, you're on your own."

"Come on, I really had to go, and-!"

"I'm hanging up now!"

Rachel stared at hard the cell phone that she had just flipped shut. She knew that she would be getting a call from him in a minute or two, but she couldn't decide whether she was actually going to pick up or not. She wouldn't be able to hide from him forever. And, really, she should be used to this sort of thing.

It was all the special brand of awkward, made just for Wally.


End file.
